Aib-ektoiwe



A. O. WILLCOX. DOUBLE AGTING GALORIC AIR ENGINE.

Patented July 19, 1853.

UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

AUSTIN O. WILLCOX', OF PHILADELPHIA, PENNSYLVANIA.

AIR-ENGINE.

Specification of Letters Patent No. 9,871, dated July 19, 1853.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, AUSTIN O. WILLCOX, of the city and county of Philadelphia and State of Pennsylvania, have invented a new and Improved Double-Acting or Single.

Acting Caloric Air-Engine for Producing Motive Power by the Alternate Expansion and Contraction of Air or other Fluid by the Agency of Heat; and I do hereby declare that the following is a full and exact description thereof, reference being had to the accompanying drawings, making part of this specification, Figure 1 being a longitudinal vertical section through the center of the engine; Fig. 2, a transverse vertical section thereof in line 00 a; of Fig. 1; Fig. 3, an end elevation of the same, and Fig. 4 a top view of the working cylinders.

Like letters designate corresponding parts in all the figures.

The nature of my invention consists, first, in the employment of interchanging circulators G, G, and H, H, which are situated within and occupy one-half the capacity of each heat-reversing vessel B, O, and are so arranged as to alternately transfer the air, or other fluid, to the heating andcooling divisions of said vessels, and in the same movement to cause the air to pass through renovating plates 2, z, &c., or their equivalents, whether placed within the circulators and transmitting the air, or placed without the circulators and the air forced through them; secondly, in placing an inwardly pressing packing a, in the open end of each working cylinder; and, in combination therewith, the construction of the working piston (being of the requisite length) of a littleless diameter than the interior of the cylinders; whereby the friction surface is confined to the periphery of the piston, in order to sufliciently exclude its lubricating fluid from the contact of the hot air within the cylinders, substantially as here-- inafter fully set forth.

I employ two heat-reversing vessels B, C,

one for each working cylinder, precisely similar in construction and operation, but alternating with each other in their action. Their dimensions should be such that half the capacity of each will contain the requisite amount of air for operating its side of the engine. They may be of any practicable form, the cylindrical being best, and arranged in any convenient position, the most suitable being horizontal, side by side,

as shown in the drawings. The lower half of each is to be exposed to the heat of a furnace I, while the upper half thereof is subjected to the act-ion of cold air, cold water, or other refrigerating means. The furnace and refrigerator are separated by a diaphragm S, or its equivalent. I usually arrange said furnace so that the smokeafter entering a chamber P,will pass directly to the chimney M; or, by moving a damper, or valve, o, the heat and smoke shall be caused to circulate among a series of pipes u, u, u, &c., extending through the chamber P, and thence past to the chimney, by the apertures a, n, &c., through which pipes a blast of air is introduced by a pipe N, and becoming heated by contact of the hot air in said chamber, with said pipes, passes thence through a pipe t, into the furnace; whereby much of the heat escaping with the smoke, is again brought back and saved. A pipe m, leads from the bottom of the vessel B, to one of the working cylinders, D, and a corresponding pipe Z, from the vessel C, to the other working cylinder E; both of which pipes may be provided with valves y, y, for stopping the engine. Each vessel is to be furnished with a safety valve, as at a, Fig. 1.

The interchanging circulators G, G, and H, H, within the heat-reversing vessels B, C, are constructed, arranged and operated in the following manner :There may be one circulator in each of said vessels, each occupying one half the space thereof; but I usually employ two circulators for each vessel, each occupying one fourth the capacity of its vessel, as shown in Fig. 2. Each pair G, G, and H, H, of the circulators is caused to vibrate respectively upon a central shaft, or tube, 8, (passing through the axis of its vessel,) to the extent of one fourth the circumference of said vessel, by means of any suitable device operated by the engine so as to change its position at the proper moment, with each movement of the working piston, or pistons. WVhen the circulators vibrate upward, they move in opposite directions and meet at the top of the vessel, where they occupy the upper, or refrigerating half thereof, like G, G, in the vessel B, Fig. 2; and when they vibrate downward, they in a similarmanner separate and meet again at the bottom of the vessel, thus occupying the lower, or heating half thereof, like H, H, in the vessel C, Fig. 2. The air occupying the vacant half of:vessels must, at the same time, be permitted to exchange places with the circulators, either by passing through the circulators, or through some passage provided for the purpose out of the circulators. I usually cause the air to pass through the circulators themselves, for which purpose I pack the edges of one or both of their radial surfaces,usually only those adjacent to the refrigerating portion thereof, While the outer, or curved portion, and ends of each circulator are separated from the inner surface of the vessel by a thin space, so as to prevent contact but to allow as little heated air as possible to enter and its heat be thereby wasted. lVhile the air is interchanging positions with the circulato-rs, it is subjected to the contact of a large number of thickly perforated renovating plates 2, z, or their equivalents, made of metal or other good heat-conducting substance, so that, when heated, it will impart a large portion of its caloric thereto, and when returning cooled, it will again receive most of the heat before imparted. As the air passes from the lower, or heating division of the vessel, it first enters the compartments 6', Z), in the outer part of the circulators; thence .it passes into the compartments containing the renovating plates; thence, into other compartments c, 0', which open into the upper, or cooling division of the vessel. Between the last compartments 0, 0', and the axes of the circulators I usually leave spaces 03, d, (which may also contain coils of pipes to transmit the air,) to be filled with cold air or cold water, which may be conveniently introduced therein through the hollow axis 8, for the purpose of assisting in cooling the passing air. In returning from the cooling, to the heating division of the vessel, the air, of course, passes in the opposite direction through said compartments and renovators. The mouths of said compartments should curve outwardly toward the periphery of the vessel, as shown in Fig. 2, in order to throw the discharging currents against the surface of the vessel, in the manner indicated by arrows, so as to produce a more rapid action in heating and cooling.

The working cylinders D, E, may be separate, and each provided with a piston; but I prefer to place them end to end, with their axes in the same straight line, and employ a single working piston F, for both, as represented in the drawings. One end of each cylinder is open, in which the piston moves tightly. The effective capacity of each cylinder should beequal to, or less than the effective capacity of each of the vessels B, C, (which is one half the entire capacity thereof.) The capacity of the piston F,

should be as great as that of each cylinder, besides its heads and the portion occupying the space between the cylinders. The piston .serted a suitable elastic packing 0, which presses inwardly against the periphery of the piston; an elastic metallic ring is a good packing for the purpose. The object of this arrangement of the piston and packing is, first, to obviate the necessity of accurately finishing the inner surfaces of the cylinders so that the piston will slide closely therein; and secondly, by thus allowing only a thin sheet of the heated air in the cylinders ever to come in contact with the periphery of the piston, and that scarcely circulating there, to prevent the piston from being heated to so high a degree as to injure the lubricating fluid.

The requisite density of the air may be obtained within the engine by means of a hand, or power pump applied in any convenient place and manner. In the drawings, I have represented a method of chargmg the engine to any degree-of pressure by the working of the piston F. I form within said piston a. barrel d, concentric, or at least parallel therewith, and of convenient diameter, which slides, when the engine is in action, over a hollow piston 7", whose inner space communicates with the external atmosphere by means of a tube g, attached to the head of one of the cylinders, and serving also to hold said piston stationary. Self-acting valves 7a, 70, open from the interior of this stationary piston into the two ends of the barrel d, and similar valves j, 7', open from said barrel respectively into the two cylinders D, E. A tube, or aperture 2', through the piston 7, opens a communication from one end of the barrel d, to the other,

and is opened or closed by a valve h, which is under the control of the engineer, by means of a rod extending outside of the cylinder, as shown in Fig. 1. As the piston F, moves forward and backward, there is alternately formed in either end of the bar 1 v thus drawn in, is expelled from the barrel by the piston f, through the proper valve j, into the adjacent cylinder. When a sufiicient pressure of air is obtained in the engine, the valve 72,, is turned so as to allow a free circulation of air through the tube 2',

and thereby stop the operation of the pump. The space 6, in the piston F, around the barrel d, may be filled with some substance which is a slow conductor of heat; or better, it may be subjected to the contact of 1 water whoseevaporation will keepit down to the proper temperature.

The circulators may be vibrated by the engine in any convenient manner. In the drawings is represented a means of working them by the movement of the cylinders, which are arranged as oscillating, the piston rod 6, being connected immediately with the crank a, of the driving shaft. A vibrating lever p, Fig. 3, is situated in front of the engine from the arms of which extend rods 0, 0, &c. that connect with vibratory arms on the shafts g r, of the circulators, as shown in Fig. 3; so that, when said lever p, is caused to vibrate up and down both pairs of circulators will be alternately vibrated, as before described. The lever 9, is caused to vibrate with the oscillations of the cylinders, by means of forked arms n, n, or their equivalents one on each side of the cylinders as shown in Figs. 1 and 4, one of which is drawn out so as to move the said lever, while the other is kept free from it. Then the engine is to be reversed in its motion, these arms are to be reversed in their positions. By this arrangement, the circulators are reversed, as desired while the piston is near the termination of each stroke and is not or is only slightly advancingor while the crank is moving at right angles to the direction of the piston.

In the drawings, the driving-shaft and its fly-wheel A, are represented as moving in the direction indicated by the arrow in Fig. 1; and the piston F, as just beginning its backward stroke, and having just reversed the positions of the circulators. In the vessel B, the circulators G, G, are in the upper, or cooling portion thereof, while the air is consequently occupying the lower, or heating portion, and beginning to flow into the cylinder D, to drive the piston back. In the vessel C, the circulators H, H, are in the lower, or heating portion thereof, and the air in the upper cooling portion, or flowing therein from the cylinder E, through said circulators. hen the circulators in the vessels B, C, were last reversed previous to the position of the engine above represented, those in the vessel B, passing into the upper portion thereof, said movement caused the cooled air, that had occupied said upper portion, to flow down through the circulators G, G, and their renovating plates 2, 2, thus taking up a large proportion of the heat imparted to said plates in its preceding upward flow; and then passing into the heating portion of the vessel, it remains till it is further heated to the requisite degree for driving the piston back. At the same time, the circulators H, H, in the vessel C, passed from the upper, to the lower portion thereof, thus causing the heated air, which had just forced the piston F, forward, to rush up through their renovators, to which having imparted a large proportion of its adscititious heat, it occupies the cooling portion of the vessel, to be then still further reduced to the requisite temperature. A rarefaction thereby takes places in the cylinder E, which, by lessening the resisting pressure, just so much assists in forcing the piston back. Similar movements take place at the termination of each stroke of the piston.

Having thus fully described my improved caloric air engine, what I claim as my invention and desire to secure by Letters Patent 1s 1. The interchanging circulators G, G, and H, H, situated within and occupying one half the capacity of each heat-reversing vessel B, C, and so arranged so as to alter nately transfer the air, or other fluid, to the heating and cooling divisions of said vessels, and in the same movement to cause the air to pass through renovating plates 2, z, &c., or their equivalents, whether placed within the circulators and transmitting the air, or placed without the circulators and the air forced through them, substantially as herein described.

2. I also claim placing an inwardly pressing packing 0, in the open end of each working cylinder; and, in combination therewith, the construction of the working piston (being of the requisite length) of a little less diameter than the interior of the cylinders; whereby the friction surface is confined to the periphery of the piston, in order to sufficiently exclude its lubricating fluid from the contact of the hot air within the cylinders, substantially in the manner herein set forth.

3. I also claim the barrel (Z, and stationary hollow piston f, with its supply tube 9, aperture i, valves h, and 7c, 70, in combination with the working piston F, and its valves j, j, for the purpose of supplying air or other fluid to the cylinders, when desired, substantially as herein described.

AUSTIN O. VVILLCOX.

Witnesses Z. G. ROBBINS, J. S. BROWN. 

